A headshot of Amanda smiling in front of a wood panelled wall. Amanda has long dark curly hair with pink highlights, light skin, and is wearing a white blouse with black flowers on it.
"Taking care of plants is my way to do hands-on science every day and remember that science is actually part of the real world, it doesn't just exist on your computer."
Find out more about Amanda at #HumansOfLIGO: humansofligo.blogspot.com/2025/12/aman...
🧪🔭
This is a selfie of Begüm Kabagöz, from her work desk with her LIGO Livingston ID
"I knew I was going to be a scientist from a young age. I did my PhD in ultrafast nonlinear fiber optics, and during an intense period of it, I started listening to astronomy podcasts to relax"
Find out more about Begüm at #HumansOfLIGO
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2025/08/begu...
Check out the latest #HumansOfLIGO post by @tiffanynichols.bsky.social !
A selfie of Tiffany inside of the LIGO Hanford detector. Tiffany has dark skin and is wearing a hair net and yellow framed glasses. In the background are detector components with many wires, and two other people in hair nets.
"I remember thinking, I would not want to be an engineer on LIGO due to the complex challenges of designing and operating precision instruments. That thought fuelled my curiosity"
Find out more about Tiffany (@tiffanynichols.bsky.social) at #HumansOfLIGO: humansofligo.blogspot.com/2025/06/tiff...
A picture of Lucy standing in front of a gate in a stone wall. She has light skin and long blonde hair, and is wearing sunglasses, flower printed top and trousers, and a yellow bag.
"I love to paint and occasionally I create art based on black holes and gravitational waves. The inside cover of my PhD thesis features a binary black hole merger drawing and it was really fun to make!"
Find out more about Lucy at #HumansOfLIGO: humansofligo.blogspot.com/2024/04/lucy...
👩💻🔭
Teresita taking a selfie in a tour of the beam tube. It is shiny
“I am most proud of [the] Binary-Black-Hole Orrery. I felt like I was part of a cool secret because these events were not public at the time, and I was an undergraduate working on a really exciting project”–Teresita Ramirez
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2020/04/tere...
#HumansOfLIGO #BlackHoleWeek
Leigh enjoying a picnic in the Scottish highlands. It is very green
“[My] favourite event is the [neutron star–black hole] NSBH merger GW200105; I picture NSBHs events as the 'experienced' black hole showing the 'baby' neutron star what to do, and always find it funny.” – Leigh Smith #HumansOfLIGO
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2023/07/leig...
#BlackHoleWeek 🔭
Maya Fishbach and her little brother Tommy on the icy Chicago lake shore. They look happy. To the left, one of Tommy's drawings of "BLAC HOLS". They are round and surrounded by a disc of material. Maya has these by her desk for motivation.
“I love to take my 7-year-old brother to the Adler Planetarium and talk to him about space. He thinks that black holes are really cool, and whenever I feel stressed about research, I like to remind myself of this” – Maya Fishbach #HumansOfLIGO
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2019/08/maya...
#BlacHoleWeek
Simona wearing a LIGO T-shirt, happily pointing at the GEO beam tube
"I can't remember a time when I wasn't interested in mathematics and the physical world around me, a passion which took off full force in college"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2020/01/simo...
Simona Miller has worked analyzing the distribution of spins of merging black holes
#HumansOfLIGO 10/🧵
A photo of Laurence surrounded by her artwork of landscapes and spacescapes
"I'd love to have dinner with my grandfather … to let him know everything I've been up to, and hear more of his stories about being a resistant in WWII"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2020/04/laur...
Laurence Datrier (@asleepywanderer.bsky.social) has worked on a variety of topics
#HumansOfLIGO 9/🧵
Teresita taking a selfie next to one of the beam tubes. It stretches a long way in the background
"As a first-generation Mexican-American female physics student from an underprivileged background, my family is so proud that I have decided to pursue a physics degree"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2020/04/tere...
Teresita Ramirez developed the LIGO Orrery
#HumansOfLIGO 8/🧵
Dripta in front of a spring display of flowers
"My parents helped me translate our science summary of GW190412 to Bengali, and that got them hooked to black holes"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2020/09/drip...
Dripta Bhattacharjee has worked on calibration of gravitational-wave interferometers
#HumansOfLIGO 7/🧵
Brina holding a very excited dog
"Dr. Gabriela Gonzalez is the reason I chose to pursue LIGO research … when I got to meet her and see what LIGO does I instantly knew it was something I wanted to do"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2021/05/brin...
Brina Martinez has worked on characterizing the noise in our detectors
#HumansOfLIGO 6/🧵
Cassidy in a floral yellow blouse
"I fell in love with astronomy in high school but still wanted to be a teacher so I ended up studying astronomy at college with a concentration in education"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2023/03/cass...
Cassidy Eassa is a science educator at LIGO Hanford
#HumansOfLIGO 5/🧵
Leigh enjoying a picnic in the Scottish hills
"I always enjoyed physics and astronomy as a subject, but it wasn't something I had ever considered doing until my teacher had asked why I wasn't going to pursue it at University"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2023/07/leig...
Leigh Smith works on data analysis of bursts
#HumansOfLIGO 4/🧵
Jamie wearing a golden top
"Until I started my current job with LIGO nearly 6 years ago, I'd never seriously considered a career in accounting or finance."
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2023/08/jami...
Jamie Goad is a LIGO Laboratory Financial Analyst for Caltech and oversees the LIGO Operations budget
#HumansOfLIGO 3/🧵
Elena outside LIGO Hanford. She is wearing a bobble hat
"One of my favorite activities at the detector site is to lead public tours, it gives me that experience again of interacting with all sorts of people"
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2024/10/elen...
Elenna Capote works on detector commissioning and upgrades
#HumansOfLIGO 2/🧵
#February11 is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science #IDWGS. Meet some of our international #WomenInSTEM through #HumansOfLIGO
1/🧵
Meet our newest Human of @LIGO Dripta Bhattacharjee! 👇🏾
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2020/09/dripta-bhattacha...
Dripta's family helped translate one of our science summaries to Bengali and have since become obsessed with black holes!
#HumansofLIGO #ScientistsareHumans
Get a glimpse into the people behind gravitational-wave discoveries with #HumansOfLIGO https://humansofligo.blogspot.com (curated by the excellent @actualdrdoctor)
Laurence Datrier (@ASleepyWanderer) is another @LIGO scientist with some major artistic ability! Follow Laurence to see more of her art, and read her #HumansofLIGO quote about teaching others her grandfather’s old French sayings...
Our #HumansofLIGO project was featured in a @symmetrymag article by @MedPhyzGirl! Cool to see other amazing projects out there that profile scientists like Faces of DUNE and DES Scientist of the Week.
#ScientistsareHumans
www.symmetrymagazine.org/article/humans-of-physic...
Gwynne Crowder observed the CMB in Antarctica and also launched rockets to study the ISM before she joined @LIGO. Find out more about Gwynne, our newest Human of LIGO, here:
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2019/08/gwynne-crowder.h...
#HumansofLIGO #ScientistsAreHumans
At the LIGO-Virgo Collaboration Meeting this week, and I'm excited to do some science AND interview new #HumansofLIGO!
Check out an excerpt from a #HumansofLIGO conversation I had with Prof. Mark Hannam (@MarkDHannam)! #scientistsarehumans
humansofligo.blogspot.com/2019/02/mark-hannam.html
New #HumansofLIGO quote from Oli Patane, an undergraduate at Cal State Fullerton who works on #GravitySpy! Oli also wanted me to mention the importance to them of supporting transgender and queer folks in science. I second that! See Oli's quote...
I'm at the @LIGO meeting in Maastricht, NE this week and have had the amazing opportunity to interview people IN PERSON for new #humansofligo posts! It's been awesome to learn more about the incredible people in our collaboration and what they enjoy doing outside of science.
